New evidence of fossils unveiled by archaeologist Nikolai Spassov suggests that the human species is likely to have had its origins in Greece, not Africa, an article in New Scientist says.

Nikolai Spassov and his team from the National Museum of Natural History in Bulgaria recently discovered fossils in both Greece and neighboring Bulgaria — including a jawbone believed to be from an ape called Graecopithecus which dates back more than 7 million years. This discovery seems to disprove that Africa is the birthplace for humans, as the Graecopithecus’ remains to predate the Sahelanthropus hominin found in Africa.

Graecopithecus are thought to have roamed Eastern Europe long after the other apes had vanished from the continent and after examining the jaw with CT-scans, it was concluded that the way in which the roots of the premolars are fused as well as the small canines on the jawbone, the jaw belongs to a hominin not a chimp.